I don't think that's going to happen. Despite what the economic Chicken Littles out there keep saying, the economy is not so terrible right now. That's evidenced by attendance at Disney Resorts remaining strong through all these horrible times, and by people having the means to be able to include themselves in those attendance numbers. Not only is the economy doing well enough for the parks to be doing quite well, but the entire Disney company is doing quite well. Disney is making over a Billion dollars
quarterly, and those are the numbers they look at.
Then when you factor in that guests have the means to pay for the gas and the travel costs to get the family to a Disney Resort or to a place where they can buy a Disney product, it's difficult to acknowledge that and believe the economy is doing so badly. The GDP just grew 0.9% and 1.9% in respective quarters in 2008 thus far. For a recession to happen, the GDP would have to contract in two consecutive quarters. The economy is going in the exact opposite direction from a recession, and yet all these people either in denial or not aware of the real numbers keep yelling recession recession recession. It's amazing.
Disney wants its parks to be flush with guests, but too many guests means long lines, overprocessing of guests who are there, and various complaints from guests because of the conditions. It's
normal to see prices increase marginally like this every so often.
-- PMM
